Taylor Jones

Digital detox Caption in the photo ^ - Would you like to join me? - #digitaldetox #digitalminimalism #digitaldeclutter #minimalismchallenge #lifedesign

Today I have returned home from a wonderful, windy (and wet) week out in the wilderness, hiking parts of the Pennine Way with @lydiaellenx . I really discovered what the country of England is made of! Who knew that the UK was home to such crazy landscapes?? - I wanted a way to capture and share a little of the experience, so together we made a few short + very therapeutic videos. A link to our shared YouTube channel is in my bio :) I hope that they might inspire you to get out there yourself! - #hiking #hikingadventure #wildcamping #wildcampinguk #pennineway #pennines #yorkshiredales #travelvideos #travelvideography #wildphotography #hikingphotography #ukcountryside #walkinguk #hillwalking #backpackers #backpacktravel

I feel that I have forgotten how to design. Sometimes I don’t know how to create anything at all. - I suspect that the lockdown has taken a much bigger toll on me than I first realised. All of the forward momentum that I had beforehand has gone, and now I often feel directionless. The result: I stay in bed late, avoid the people I care about, create very little… and if my healthy habits, relationships and projects are failing, then… what am I? - Most days, I feel out of control. For months I have been fighting an internal battle: against perfectionism, a desire to be liked and respected, a need for approval, an instinct to ‘protect myself’ from failure and disappointment by stepping back from the world and shutting down my own ideas. - My attempts to ‘regain control’ are probably excessive, and mostly fruitless. I have tried habit tracking, time-boxing, systemising my entire life. On the outside, it might even look like I do have control! But this is just a mask I wear, to feel capable. In truth: I’m very scared that I will always be incapable of dealing with the enormous world that I’m entering. - I already know what I must do: unfortunately, it is not the easy path. My pursuit for control is endless. I will never be disciplined or capable enough to wrestle the world into submission. Instead, I must learn that it is acceptable - in fact, it is human - to be out of control, fearful and sometimes disappointed. Despite this, I can find ways to love and enjoy myself. My value does not come from what I can create, or what I can control; but rather from who I am. - Perhaps you feel the same – and if so, let’s go through this together. Rebuilding my creative confidence and facing fears will be a long and slow process. I am starting to realise that we don’t have to go through things alone! - [Photo: the ‘Mission Control’ corkboard in my bedroom] - #behonest #radicalhonesty #selfcaresunday #overcominganxiety #creativeblock #paralysis #creativeprocess #overcomingfear #fearnot #creativelife #thewarofart #anxiety #creativeconfidence #mindset #mindsetmatters #graphicdesign #designer #designprocess #artlife

First try with some collage work! Today is the start of a week-long project based on ‘Dadaism’, a movement starting around WWI that rejected the modern capitalist society, and embraced randomness, ridiculousness, humour... #dada #dadaism #dadaart #collage #collageart #collageartwork #collages #graphicdesign #layoutdesign

“I must be honest: it made me feel good about myself. When everybody is talking about BLM, it's very tempting to jump onboard. Posting a picture like this to Instagram says ‘look at me! I'm a good person’ – it feels righteous, and yet reveals nothing about my true beliefs and intentions. I feel guilty knowing that I will only speak out when it is fashionable; only attend a protest when it is convenient. Also, my presence had serious consequences: by being there, in the crowds, without a face mask, I was putting myself and others at risk. If I stepped out of line and broke boundaries, I might have antagonised the police. I was risking a lot just to watch, take photos and feel good about myself for a while.” - www.taylorjones.space/journal - #blacklivesmatter #blm #protest #silenceisviolence

Phew, I made it out alive! Here are the results of my first project at WdKA: a tough brief that really challenged the way I think and work... and I passed!! 🏆 - (Those finger-print looking things are delicate ‘spore prints’: when you lay a mushroom face-down on paper, it releases millions of microscopic spores from its gills. Who knew!) - Man, this project was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The brief was very different to anything I’ve been given before. Rather than producing a book, or a typeface, we were tasked to “experiment with a chosen material” until we discovered some way to use it for design. Some picked tin foil, or banana skins, or chewing gum, or yeast - I picked ‘Mycelium’, the root structure of mushrooms, which can be grown into blocks for construction and so on. This was my first mistake: trying to be ‘cool’ and making things difficult for myself (a lesson learned). Half of the battle was just getting hold of the damn stuff... - For the entire process I was pretty far out of my comfort zone... and to be honest, I didn’t have the courage to get on with the project until I really had to!! Major procrastination was my second mistake. - After lots of burning, crushing, growing, microscoping, combining and mixing, I did eventually discover some really exciting possible uses! Unfortunately, I now had very little time left to play around with these: my third mistake. An all-nighter was enough for me to communicate my final concept, and to publish everything I had made on my own website. The final concept is kinda neat, but the true achievement is all of the experiments it took for me to get there. I’m very pleased to say that I passed and will not be kicked out of uni 🤠🕺🏻 - #graphicdesign #experiments #scientist #designscience #experimentalart #procrastination #justdoit✔️ #university #student #willemdekooning #erasmusstudent #naturedesign #naturaldesign #designbynature #designedbynature @wdka #wdka

Amigos!! I have big news to share with you: I no longer ‘hope’ to make music - I’m doing it for real!! A small step closer to a little dream of designing soundtracks 🕺🏻🌈 - Four years ago, I scraped together some money and bought a small music production kit. The day it arrived, I was super excited - music has always been able to get me through tough times, and now I could finally play a part! Unfortunately, I soon found out how complicated music software is, and was quickly crippled by perfectionism... - After a few miserable attempts, I put the kit back in its box and haven’t touched it since. Every time I saw that box under my bed it filled me with guilt: how embarrassing to be defeated by my own expectations!! - But last weekend, I decided that enough was enough - and booted up that dusty software one more time. After long hours in front of the ironing board, I managed to pull together a track and look at me now!! Damn it is the proudest thing I’ve ever made!! Not because it is very good, but because it is actually rather bad - and I didn’t let the perfectionism stop me! Now I’m up to 3 ‘finished’ tracks, and feel like I can tackle the world 🕺🏻💪🏼⭐️ IF YOU SUCK, DO IT ANYWAY #daretosuck - P.S. turns out that music production really isn’t so hard, if you lower your expectations and produce something super simple. My first finished piece was just 3 tracks + a couple effects. - #daretosuck #imperfection #amateurartist #doit #doitfortheprocess #amateurmusician #musicproduction #newmusicalert #newmusicmonday #newmusician #soundtracks #soundtracksunday #videoedit #ironing #quarantinelife #justdoit✔️ #perfectionism

Excited and nervous… 🌈 Okay, it has been quite a personal achievement to get to this point, so I’m really happy to be sharing with you this first ever podcast episode!! Here are some snippets – full episode at the link in my bio. Claudia and I talked about some of the most difficult parts of being a designer, sharing stories of breakdowns and angry emails… maybe you can take a listen on your daily stroll ☀️ - I did this because the idea made me feel fearful. The potential effort, embarrassment or ‘failure’ has paralysed me from trying out any projects in the world of audio… until now!! For hours leading up to our conversation, I was nervous and panicked, trying to prepare for everything that could go wrong. But as soon as we got started, I had so much fun!! The adrenaline and the sense of achievement makes the risk soooo worthwhile. Now, I’m not so afraid of podcasting. In fact, I would really value anybody’s feedback on whether you got any value from our conversation, and what could be done better next time. - I want to say a huuuuge thank you to @designby.claudia who joined me in the experiment. She was super honest and made the process feel so natural. Her support was crucial to making this thing happen, so THANK YOU!! Now who’s next ;) - Hello @stevencollinsbond @luketonge - your names come up in conversation so I thought you’d like to know about it!! 😇 - #podcast #podcastlife #podcasting #podcasters #experimenting #creativeprocess #overcoming #overcomingfear #newpodcast #premiere #quarantinelife #quarantineart #quarantineartclub #artexperiment #graphicdesign #designers #designstudent #falmouth #universitystudent @falmouthuni @graphicdesignfalmouth

Long-distance blindfolded Pictionary ✏️😎 definitely one of the funniest ways to keep connected during quarantine... - At a time when we have to rely entirely on online tools for social contact, I’m finding it really hard to truly connect with people. I have been looking for ways to laugh, interact, share stories and collaborate with others from a distance, and have discovered some things that I am really excited about. Hopefully I can share them with you soon!! Send me a message if you wanna play blindfold Pictionary with me 😉 - #quarantineactivities #quarantinelife #blindfold #challenge #pictionary #drawing #art #socialisolation #socialgames #quarantinegames #collaborativeart #sketchingtime #onlinegames #graphicdesign #videoedit #boardgames

I must admit, today did not look like it would be productive... it took me until lunchtime to summon the emotional energy to get out of bed. I suspect the isolation, uncertainty and lack of routine is getting to me a little. But, when I finally did get up, I refused to waste another minute - and look what happened!! 🌈🌈 I really enjoyed making a mess, moving fast and playing like a kid again. None of it really means anything... but it was fun, refreshing and gave me some time + space to calm down and think straight. 10/10 highly recommend ⭐️🕺🏻 I hope you are all finding ways to stay healthy and creative :)) - #painting #productive #quarantinelife #stayhealthy #abstractart #keepcreating #keepongoing #abstractpaintings #artwork #creative #createathome #staycreative #justforfun

You won’t want to miss these so keep swiping 👀🕺🏻 >> - Day 11 in quarantine and I’m going crazy BUT I did also single-handedly invent the future of fashion AND clothes shopping... - (Most of these were filmed in ‘Zoom’ - group chat software you’ve probably already used. Try it yourself!) Once downloaded on Mac/PC, go to Preferences > Virtual Background. - To use GIFs and Videos in your greenscreen, you’ll need OBS Studio (free)!! - #greenscreen #dance #virtualbackground #vfx #visualfx #dancevideos #fashion #fashiondesign #futureoffashion #technology #videoeffects #obsstudio #quarantinelife #quarantined #quarantineartclub #graphicdesign #universitystudent

Memories feel just a little richer in 360 degrees! Time + space will forever pull me apart from the wonderful people I meet, but I’m doing my best to record experiences in a way that is vivid and meaningful. #360camera #360photography #360photo #photography #memory #rememberwhen #memorykeeping #timecapsule